Time Wars
by Morph Man
Summary: (UPDATED: CHAPTER 3) Some twenty years into the future, after the Yeerk War is won, a new war breaks out. And this time it doesn’t look like the andalites and their human allies can win, with their greatest heroes presumed dead. Then something happens,
1. What has gone before

Time Wars

**Chapter 1: What has gone before**

  


_Note: This is sort of a sequel to 'Fight for the future'. If you haven't read it, I recommend you do before you read Time Wars. There are some things that will not make sense if you don't._

  


_"An empire founded on war, will eventually be destroyed by war."_

  
**Hork-bajir Homeworld, High orbit, Blade Ship _Onslaught_, Year 2020.**

"Pool Ships, launch all fighters immediately! Battle Group 3 stay in sector M9! Battle Group 6 protect Pool Ships! Faster you fools, faster!" Visser Five screamed at his underlings, who did their best to relay his orders to the mighty fleet who had gathered over the planet.

"Battle Group 4 and 5 support Battle Group 1 and 2 in sector L4! That's where the assault will come from."

"Visser, I'm reading a lot of disturbances in z-space coming our way!"

"So, the andalites and the human _drapsen_ are already here." the Visser spat. "Order all fighters to L4. Wipe out every last one of them!" he bellowed, confident they would be victorious.

In sector L4 a lot of z-space jump points were forming. Seconds later they began pouring out ships by the hundreds, escorted by thousands of fighters. Visser Five's eyes widened in surprise when he looked at his tactical display.

What came out of the jump points were hundreds of light destroyers and thousands of fighters, witch immediately established a defense sphere formation five thousands kilometers in diameter, outside of range of the yeerk vessels. Nothing more happened for the next few seconds after the ships emerged. The yeerks couldn't understand what the Andalite/Human Alliance was up to. The Visser himself didn't know what to make out of it, either. Fighters and light ships in this formation was normally used to protect larger vessels as they jumped in from z-space. But almost three hundred ships and over five thousand fighters was a _most_ impressive force, more likely to be the fleet in its entirety.

Then more jump points started to open, and the first andalite Dome Ships and human Disk Ships started to emerge in the middle of the defensive sphere formation. It took the task force a full ten minutes to complete their emergence from z-space. To the yeerks it seemed as though the torrent of ships would never end. Eight hundred Dome Ships and Disk Ships formed the core of the new attack formation, while the light ships flocked around their periphery with a swarm of fighters in front of them. The colossal fleet began accelerating towards the Hork-bajir Homeworld.

This put the Visser in mind of the largest hammer in the galaxy descending upon him.

  
  
**Unknown location, Two months later.**

The Emperor of the Great Yeerk Empire was furious. And scared half to death. One moment he had been in an emergency meeting with the Council of the Thirteen, discussing the fall of the Hork-bajir Homeworld, the next he had found himself floating in this... place. For a few seconds he thought he was in space, only there was no stars. Everything was just total darkness, and he got the impression that this empty void didn't have an end.

"Where am I?!" he called out.

HAHAHA! An ugly voice sounded in his head. YOUR EMPIRE IS FALLING APART, LITTLE EMPEROR!

"Shut up!" he screamed. "Who are you!? What is this place!?"

DO YOU WANT REVENGE?

"What?"

DO YOU WANT TO SEE THE ANDALITE / HUMAN ALLIANCE DESTROYED?

"Yes! I want to see their homeworlds reduced to smoking ruins! I want every one of them made into a controller and having to suffer for the rest of their life! I want everything they care about burned down to ashes!" the Emperor screamed in reply.

GOOD, GOOD! THEN THIS IS WHAT YOU SHALL DO...

  
  
**Yeerk Homeworld, High orbit, Blade Ship _Devourer,_ Four months later.**

Visser One stood on the command bridge of his Blade Ship, issuing orders left and right. His underlings did almost panic attempts to make them into action. Already a dozen had been executed for not complying fast enough.

_They are coming._

He had not been surprised when the first fanatic rapports from the scouts came in: _They are coming. They are coming._ He had been expecting it for a while. Other Yeerks had allowed themselves to hope. Maybe they would not come. Maybe the war was over. Maybe they were safe.

They weren't safe, they were wrong.

Scouts had detected the coming of a combined andalite / human fleet. A big fleet, far bigger than his own worst fears. They did not stand a chance.

_They are coming. They are coming. They are coming._

Those three words kept spinning around in his head, along with the laughter of his host: You will loose, Visser. What is left of your empire will be destroyed today. And I will either die or get rid of you. Either way, I'll be free.

_They are coming._

  
  
"Visser?"

"What?" _They are coming._

"I said the rapport from the last scout has arrived."

"I...Yes. Good. I..." Visser One stopped walking up and down the bridge. "Are the rest of the fleet here yet?" _They are coming._

"Thirteen of the Blade Ships, yes. The two others are experiencing engine trouble and will be a little late."

"'A little late?' What do you mean 'a little late'?! I need all the firepower I can get, and you are telling me that our ships will be 'a little late'?! Are you aware that **_hell itself is about to arrive from zero-space in less than half an hour?!_**"

_They are coming. They are coming._

  
  
"Visser, the last two ships has arrived," the hork-bajir controller informed, momentary looking at the dead body of his former superior, who was still lying on the floor. The one who had angered Visser One twenty minutes earlier.

"That was about time! Tell them to get into position."

Why was he bothering doing this? The fleet he had assembled could not hope to withstand the enemy for anything more than ten seconds. Being low on supplies didn't do anything to improve the situation. Recently he had received a message directly from the Council of the Thirteen, telling him to be more economical with the few supplies he had left. He snorted. What was he suppose to tell his troops? 'Use less ammunition'? When full use of every weapon at their disposal was the only thing that slowed the enemy down?

**_They are coming!_**

  
  
There was nothing left to do. The Yeerk Empire was in ruins. Everything was lost and he knew it. **_They are coming! THEY ARE COMING!_**

"Visser, something is coming out of zero-space!" one Hork-Bajir controller reported.

"Raise shields." Visser One ordered automatically, almost in a trance.

Thousands of kilometers away, time and space was ripped apart. Hundreds of jump points connecting this space with z-space formed. For a brief moment one could see the white nothingness of zero-space; then Disk Ships and Dome Ships began pouring out of the jump points.

_They are here._

  
  
**Yeerk Homeworld, Military Command Center, 4 hours later.**

The command center down on the surface was in a uproar. Panicked technicians ran in all directions attempting to relay orders to their forces in a desperate and futile attempt to stop the invasion of their homeworld. And in the middle of all this chaos, the commander tried to keep at least a degree of control. Unsuccessfully. The large screens displayed the course of the battle, both in space and on the ground, along with tactical info. And over the speaker system messages sounded faster than anyone could react to them.

"This is Blade Ship _Desolator!_ All decks are on fire! Requesting immediate evac - skraaakk!"

"We have lost all our assets in orbit!"

"Our forces in sector 16 are not responding to hails!"

"The Sulp Niar pool is under heavy bombardment!"

"Our forces are retreating from sector 6 in wild disarray!"

"Free taxxons has gone berserk and are eating yeerks still in the pools!"

"Andalite and human ground troops are slaughtering our forces in sector 2, 9, 6, 14, 13, 18, 5... everywhere! We can not stop them!"

"Move the troops in sector 12 to the Sulp Niar pool!" the commander yelled in response. "Defend the pool at all costs!"

"We just lost contact with them!" a sub-coordinate yelled in return.

The commander cursed. The situation was growing worse by the minute. Then: "Warning! Enemy troops have entered the command center! Enemy troops have entered the - skreee!"

"Okay, that's it. Get the Emperor and the rest of the council out of here." He said to a guard. _But where to?_ He wondered.

"We can't find the Emperor, sir. We have already searched through the entire complex. He is not here."

"What are you talking about? This is the most secure -"

The commander never had a chance to finish the sentence, because just then the blastdoor were blown up, and three plasmagrenades thrown in wiped out all life inside.

  
  
_The surviving yeerks (barely one third of the pre-war population) officially surrendered a day after the command center was captured. With the yeerks defeated and the Andalite / Human Alliance flourishing, a golden age appeared to be within grasp. However, things are not always what they seem, and new threats are always on the horizon. And beyond time and space, the Crayak chuckled evily. The Yeerk War had only been the warm-up..._

  
  
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Well, what do you think? Shall I continue writing, or is it just thrash? Review please...


	2. The only hero, is a dead hero

Time Wars

**Chapter 2: The only hero, is a dead hero**

  


_"Heroes have a tendency to live short lives."_

  
**_Zarya_ Fleet Base, Scorpii Sector, Year 2023.**

Commander Takahashi thought calling _Zarya_ a Fleet Base was ridiculous. It was even stretching it a bit far calling it an outpost. Built after the Yeerk War, the _Zarya _had never seen any action. It was located on the border of the Yeerk Area, as far away from human / andalite space as possible. The only thing the space stations some fifty-strong crew ever did, was maintaining the six starhawk-fighters stationed there, and gazing at the stars. The pilots themselves were charged with the boring task of patrolling the Yeerk Area, making sure the defeated yeerks didn't attempt anything funny.

"Anything interesting to report?" he asked as he strode into the bridge.

"No unless you call a load of space dust and a lone comet 'interesting'" his second in command replied. "I never thought life could get so boring."

"So, you'd like some excitement?" Takahashi said as he sat himself in the command chair. "A Blade Ship popping out of z-space, perhaps?"

"Yeah, right." The yeerks had been crushed three years earlier, and those few yeerk ships that survived (only a few dozen) had been scrapped.

The conversation ended abruptly when the warning siren suddenly sounded.

"Sir, I have four unknowns coming out of z-space."

"On screen." Takahashi ordered. The large viewscreen in front of him changed from showing only stars, into including four triangular ships, with what looked like the bridge located on the left side.

"Identity?"

"Negative, sir. Whoever they are, they are not in the databanks."

_A new race?_ Takahashi thought. _That's not something you discover every day._ "Hail them. Send a standard greeting in _galard_."

"Jesus! Now I'm reading multiple weaponslocks on us!"

"Take us to Defcon 1 immediately! Raise shields, launch fighters!" Takahashi barked. _Careful what you whish for, you might just get it._ He thought bitterly.

Unfortunately, _Zarya_ was not designed to withstand such an assault. Green energybeams shot out from the hostile ships, and began hammering at the space station's shields. _Zarya_ returned fire with its shredders, and managed to inflict some damage. But it was to little, to late. _Zarya's _shields collapsed after ten seconds, and the pilots never made it to the launchbays. The hangar was the first thing that was targeted afterwards. Explosions and air vents from hullbreaches could be seen on the surface of the station, as the attackers continued to cut deeper into its structure. Then they hit the energycore, and the space station flared up like an exploding star.

_Zarya_ Fleet Base was no more.

  
  
**Von Braun Spaceport, Old USA, Four days later.**

Cassie smiled as they winked goodbye to their past selves (Authors Note: Haven't read 'Fight for the future"? Shame on you! :-) The years that followed after the ellimist had shown them the future had not been easy, but they had won through. And that was the only thing that mattered.

"The circle is completed." Marco said. He had not changed a lot all these years, except growing taller, of course, and getting a haircut, but even Rachel had admitted he was handsome. That coming from her was saying a lot.

"Isn't that a line from Star Wars?" Jake said, every bit as much a leader now as then, only with much more experience. He was a cliff nothing could wear down.

Tobias. The legendary half-human, half-andalite who had made powerful Vissers tremble at the mention of his name. No one would think that he had once been a shy and withdrawn boy. Living with Rachel for years must have had some effect on him.

Rachel. She could have made one _hell_ of a career as a model. But she would probably never have chosen to become one, even if the yeerks had never showed up. Besides, years of fighting had driven the warrior in her even more into the light. One look at her and you'd know that she isn't some stupid blonde, but a warrior to the core.

Ax. A hero to his people like his brother, he was what every _aristh_ wanted to become like. With reflexes to rival Elfangor he rarely lost a tailfight, and more than one Hork-bajir controller had gotten an ugly surprise.

And finally we have Cassie. As a xenobiologist she got to do what she liked best. She had volunteered to serve as a ship's doctor during the war, and quite a few humans, hork-bajir and andalites could thank her for being alive today.

"So, Jake. How long will you stay on Earth this time?" Cassie asked as they began walking towards the space terminal.

"A couple of weeks. Just until they are finished refitting my ship with those new Type 18 shredders. Then it's back to patrolling the Yeerk Area, making sure they aren't trying to be smart again."

As late as six months ago, a patrolling Disk Ship had come over some yeerks trying to repair a damaged Blade Ship witch had somehow survived. The battle had been short, with the yeerks being blown to bits in seconds.

"Um, Jake?" Marco said carefully. "I'm afraid you are going to stay on Earth for only a few days."

"What?"

"It's not just because of the ellimist that we are gathered here today."

It is true. Ax said. I received orders directly from High Command, telling me to go to Earth as soon as possible. No reason was given.

"Same goes for me and Rachel." Tobias said.

"I know the reason." Marco said. "But I won't tell you here. To many ears."

"Oh, James Bond is at it again." Rachel taunted.

"You have no idea how right you are."

  
They boarded a small shuttle with destination for Earth orbit. Two decades earlier, such a trip would have cost millions of dollars, but technological development had reduced the prise to that of a buss ticket. The flight was quite uneventful and they soon docked at the _Eternity._

_Eternity_ Fleet Base was shaped like a giant disk with a long, thick cylinder beneath. It looked almost like an andalite Dome Ship, but much, much bigger. With its over twenty thousand strong cew, it was charged with the task of maintaining and supporting the bulk of the fleet defending Earth, Sol System and the entire Sol sector.

Once on board, Marco took the lead. He lead them through a maze of corridors and several hangars, before coming to a high-security area were they had to ID themselves and go through a scanner, before getting past the guards (although the guards cast one look at their IDs, then preformed a salute witch would have impressed a four-star general).

"Just what are we doing here?" Rachel asked, beginning to lose her patience.

"Easy, Xena. Look at that one." Marco said and pointed. They were standing in the middle of a small hangar witch was occupied by one ship. The ship was shaped like a sleek teardrop, completely black, and equipped with four - four! - engines. Although she was far from an expert in the area, even Cassie could se it was heavily armed with shredders.

"This is the _Black Light._" Marco continued. "It is a stealth-ship equipped with the latest in cloaking technology and advanced sensors."

"So basically you are telling us it's built for spying?" Cassie asked.

"Um, yes."

"On what?" Jake asked.

Marco sighed. "Four days ago, we lost contact with _Zarya _Fleet Base in the Scorpolii sector. We sent a Disk Ship to investigate. It was never heard from again. A day later the andalites lose contact with one of their outposts. Next, _another_ Disk Ship disapare without a trace, this time barely 18 light-years from the Yeerk Homeworld."

"My God." Tobias said.

"Yes. High Command has kept this secret until now, and is sending our forces into the Yeerk Area as fast as they can. However, they are not to keen on a new war, right after having defeated the yeerks. So, the IIA are sending this prototype-vessel to find out who the attackers are and what they want."

"Great, but what does all this have to do with us." Jake asked. "If we have a war situation, then we should be onboard our respective ships right now."

"Well, the _Black Light_ has six cabins. Five are designed for humans, the sixth for an andalite..." Everyone stared at him. "They want the Animorphs." he finished.

"Why us?" Cassie exclaimed.

"I don't know. Perhaps they think we can work miracles or something. Anyway, it was Admiral Gates himself who requested that we'd be transferred here. Everything has already been arranged. Jake will be the official Captain onboard, but we are all used to him being in charge."

They chuckled a little. "Wait, wait." Cassie said. "You guys are all in the military, but I'm just a doctor. I am completely useless on such a mission."

Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Really? I think I can remember a Cassie who served in sickbay onboard several different ships during the war."

"Yes, but..."

"And a Cassie who did an admirable job during the assault on the Hork-bajir Homeworld."

"Yes, but..."

"Not to mention a Cassie who was indispensable in the old days, when we had only morphing-technology to combat the yeerks with."

"Yes, but..."

"Besides," Marco added. "Who is going to keep Xena from killing me?"

Looking to Jake for support, only to find him furiously fighting the urge to laugh, she finally gave in. "Okay, okay! I'll go with you."

Smiling, Marco said: "We'll leave in two days time. And don't worry. Neither the andalites nor we have sensors that can detect the _Black Light_ once it is cloaked. We couldn't be safer if we locked ourselves up in one of the bombrooms here on _Eternity_ and gathered the entire 1st Fleet around us."

Marco had no idea how wrong he was.

  
  
**Earth.**

"What do you mean you are going?" Mark exclaimed. "You said you were going to stay for two weeks! You haven't even been here for a _day_ yet."

"And what's this about mom coming with you?" Jean continued. "She is not in the military."

Mark and Jean were twins, and almost copies of their parents. Both had inherited Jakes calm and leadership gifts, and Cassie's abilities as a peace negotiator. But neither of them showed much calm right now.

"Something came up." Jake said. "I'm sorry but we have to go. Don't worry, we'll only be gone for two weeks - max."

"Two weeks?!" Jean shrieked.

"We'll probably be back before then." Cassie said quickly." As for me, well, I can't just sit here on Earth while my friends go out in space."

"Why can't someone else go?" Mark asked.

"I don't know. Admiral Gates personally requested us, and we can hardly refuse a request from him."

"Fine! Go, then. See what I care." Jean said angrily and stormed of.

Jake sighed. "Mark?"

"I... I understand. Just get back in one piece."

"Of course we will." Cassie smiled. "Are you sure you'll be alright, being alone for two weeks?"

"Sure, we're not kids anymore. We're thirteen years old."

  
"Going!? Where? And why?" Ryan demanded. "I thought that you would stay on Earth for a while."

"So did we." Tobias said carefully. "But something came up. I'm afraid we can't tell you were we are going or why."

"What is this? Some kind of spy-mission?"

Rachel and Tobias looked at each other.

"It _is_ a spy-mission."

"Look," Rachel said, trying to change the subject. "We will only be gone for a couple of weeks."

"But that's two whole weeks! I am tired of living with _your_ parents, I want to live with my own; You!" Then he stormed up to his room.

"He has your temper." Tobias sighed.

"And your stubbornness." Rachel resorted.

"Me, stubborn? You've _got_ to be kidding."

"Come now." Rachel smiled. "He'll be fine."

  
Marco, on his hand, had an much easier time, as he had been able to give his daughter and his wife more warning time.

"Promise me to be careful." Melissa said. "The yeerks might try another stunt like they did six months ago."

"Don't worry. I won't even come close to any of the four yeerk-colonized worlds." Marco said as he packed his bags, referring to the planets they had allowed the yeerks to peacefully colonize after the war. Looking at his daughter, he continued. "And you. You look out for your mother, right?"

"Sure." April responded.

"You think you can handle it?"

"Oh, I get it. _You_ fought an alien invasion at age thirteen, while _I_ can't even look out after mom?"

  
  
**_Eternity_ Fleet Base, Sec-Level A, _Black Light_ Hangar.**

Two days went by fast, and soon it was time to leave. Jake sat in the captain's chair on the small bridge, with Tobias at the Helm to the left and Rachel at Tactical to the right. Ax was managing Communications behind him. Marco and Cassie was operating the various special sensors the ship was equipped with.

"We have clearance to leave, prince Jake." Ax reported.

"Don't call me prince." Jake said automatically, forgetting the fact that he actually was one. In the eyes of andalites anyway. "Open the hangar doors and take us out at one fourth."

Seconds later the _Black Light_ shot out of the hangar like a bullet.

"Whoa, this thing is fast!" Tobias exclaimed.

"Careful now. It's not a fighter you are flying." Marco said.

"Marco is afraid we'll wreak his new toy." Rachel taunted.

"With _you_ at Tactical? Yes!"

"Set course for the Scorpii sector." Jake smiled.

The _Black Light_ disappeared into z-space.

  
  
**_Eternity_ Fleet Base, Admiral Gates' personal office.**

Admiral Gates grinned evilly as he saw the _Black Light_ disappear from the small viewscreen. It had taken a lot of effort to convince the rest of High Command and the IIA to send the so-called 'Animorphs' with the _Black Light_, but in the end he had won through. Now the first part of his mission was complete. The five humans and that andalite _dapsen_ did not know it, but they were heading towards their doom!

"Soon, very soon, we will have revenge, and the empire will be reborn!" he wispered to himself with a longing for vengeance that bordered on madness. At the same time he could feel the real admiral Gates fighting desperately to regain control. It did not matter.

After all, no host had ever successfully rebelled against a yeerk.

  
  
**Yeerk Homeworld, High orbit, Four days later.**

High above the unsuspecting andalite and human peacekeeping forces, a z-space jump point formed, and seconds later six triangular ships shot out.

"Guardmaster, we have exited z-space, and are detecting one Dome Ship in orbit." The commander of the alien fleet said.

"Raise shields. All ships attack the Dome Ship. Activate z-space jamming. Don't let them jump away!"

The andalite captain barely had time to order the shields raised before the hostiles opened fire. Green beams stabbed out and began draining the shields. The Dome Ship immediately deployed its fighters in a desperate attempt to survive. However, the attackers responded by launching a swarm of their own, crude cone-shaped fighters.

While the fighters were locked in a dogfight, the capital ships continued their shredder-duel. Soon, it became apparent that the attacking ships were much more primitive. The Dome Ship focused its attack on one of the ships in hopes of taking at least one of the enemies with them. This paid of as the shields of the triangular ship soon collapsed, and the andalite shredders began blasting in the hull.

"Guardmaster, one of our ships has sustained serious damage and is asking for permission to withdraw."

"Permission denied. We can afford a few casualties."

Shredder beam after shredder beam hit the ship, until the energycore malfunctioned and caused an explosion witch ripped it apart. The fighters were not doing any better. For each andalite fighter taken out, two or three conefighters were blown to bits. But in the end superior numbers proved to be the deciding factor, and the andalite fighters were slowly exterminated.

The Dome Ship soon meet the same fate, after having seriously reduced the shields of a second ship, its own shields failed. One green energybeam blew a hole in the dome, sucking everyone and everything inside out in space. A second beam destroyed an engine, making it almost impossible to maneuver. A third took out the primary weaponsystems, and after the bridge was hit, the ship was doomed.

The gunners onboard the triangular ships took pleasure in slowly reducing the Dome Ship to wreckage.

"The andalite ship has been completely annihilated, Guardmaster." The commander said with an evil grin.

"Good. Order the fleet to proceed towards the primary target!"

"With pleasure!"

The small fleet slowly turned towards the yeerk homeworld, and opened fire.

  
  
**The _Black Light._**

The sound of the communicator ripped Jake out of his sleep. For four days they had been on their way towards the Scorpii sector, and taking shifts had of course been necessarily. Looking on his watch he saw that it was still over an hour before he was due. Irritably he pressed a button on the communicator.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Captain, you are needed on the bridge."

Jake sighed. "Marco? Knock of the 'captain'-routine."

"Yes, Fearless Leader."

Quickly he slipped out of bed, and got dressed in his usual black uniform. As he made his way to the bridge, he mentally cursed the designers of the ship. Couldn't they have made it a little bigger when they were at it? It was barely enough room for their beds in the cabins, and the corridor leading to the bridge was so narrow that one of the walls always brushed against his side.

"What is going on?" He asked as he went into the bridge. There was only two people there, Rachel at the Helm and Marco at Communications. The rest were asleep or resting.

Marco had for once a serious expression. "We just received an encrypted message from home. The Yeerk Homeworld has been bombarded from orbit."

"What?" Jake asked, not sure if he had heard right.

"You heard me. Six unknown ships came out of z-space and attacked the Dome Ship currently patrolling that area. They were blown out of the sky in minutes, but managed to take one of the unknowns and a fair number of enemy fighters with them. Next, the hostile ships turned towards the planet and opened fire."

"Christ! What are our casualties?"

"Very low, actually. They didn't target our troops, but the morphing centers. It was mostly yeerks who died in the attack."

"The morphing centers? Why would anyone attack the morphing centers?" Jake asked incredulously. After the war the yeerks had been given an easy choice: Stay in the yeerk pools for the rest of your life, or; receive the ability to morph, acquire some humans who had volunteered their DNA, do a frolis maneuver, morph, and trap yourself. Needless to say, most yeerks choose the second option. Soon, large morphing centers were built, designed to hold the yeerks for well over two hours.

"I don't know, but that's what happened. Now the ships has withdrawn, except one. It is in orbit above the Yeerk Homeworld doing nothing. All attempts to communicate with it have so far produced no results. We have also received orders to go there, as we are the closest ship. High Command also hopes that our advanced sensors can find out more about them."

"Right. Tobias, alter the course. And wake the others."

"Done. ETA in one hour thirty-seven minutes."

Jake sat himself in the command chair. There wouldn't be anymore sleep.

  
  
**_Eternity_ Fleet Base.**

'Admiral Gates' went calmly through the corridor. He had already cleared the Sec-Level A guard post. The guard had checked his ID and, after going through a scanner, let him pass. After all, everyone knew who the supreme commander of the Earth Federation Starfleet was. But to pass the next security level would be much more difficult.

At the end of the corridor was a large door with the words 'Sec-Level Zero' painted in large letters. Only a very few people had access to this area. Luckily, admiral Gates was one of them. The yeerk could feel the admiral fighting harder than ever to regain control. He ignored him.

He produced his ID to one of the guards there, and then went through a new scanner. After being cleared, he pulled out a second card and inserted it in a slot beside the door. Then he entered a code, and the door went up.

So far, so good.

As the door closed behind him, he knew now came the difficult part. Standing in a small room that almost looked like an airlock, he pulled out a small cylinder and pressed one of the tips. Holding his breath he waited. A few seconds later the door in front of him went up. It had worked! The cylinder had prevented the biofilter from detecting his own DNA.

Grinning, he walked into the new room. It contained only a large computer sitting on a table and a chair. Both the computer and the table were bolted to the floor, making it impossible to remove. He opened his fake, scanner-immune watch, took out a memorycell, and inserted it into the computer's slot. He ran the program it contained, and sat back to wait. It took the program fifteen minutes to locate and destroy some very specific files, and a further fifteen minutes to remove all entries from the computerlogs. When he got back to his office, he would have to use it to hack into the system witch controlled the surveillance cameras, and remove the recording of him.

He had to pass through the biofilter and the scanner again to get out, but none of them found anything wrong with admiral Gates.

_One less threat._ He thought.

  
  
**The _Black Light._**

Prince Jake, We are coming out of z-space in thirty seconds.

"Good. Cloak the ship as soon as our emergence is complete. And don't call me prince."

Yes, prince Jake.

"Stand by." Tobias said. "Exiting z-space in five, four, three, two, one, now!"

A millisecond after the _Black Light_ shot out of the jump point, the cloaking device made the ship disappear both form plain sight and from any possible sensor. They were completely invisible.

"Cloaking active." Tobias reported. "And we came out exactly were we wanted. Behind the third planet in this starsystem." The yeerk homeworld was the second planet.

"Set course for the yeerk homeworld. Stay alert for anything." Jake ordered.

Second in speed only to a fighter, the small ship covered the distance in an impressing short time.

"The hostile ship is within sensor range." Tobias said.

"On screen."

The viewscreen changed into showing a strange triangular vessel with the yeerk homeworld as background.

"Do you get anything?" Jake asked.

"Their shield is up, so it's difficult to get any reading at all even with these sensors." Marco said. "If we could get a little closer I might get more."

"Close in until we are a hundred kilometers away." Jake said.

The _Black Light_ accelerated briefly, and stopped dead in space fifteen seconds later. "Now reading a hundred kilometers to target." Tobias said.

"Marco?"

"Wow! These sensors are fantastic! With ordinary sensors we wouldn't have gotten anything at all."

"Marco!"

"Oh, sorry. That thing to the left seems to be the bridge. Their weapons appear to be some kind of primitive shredders, unusually high powered. The shields of the vessel are pretty weak, they have a heavily armoured hull instead. And I have something here that I think is fighterbays. All in all I'd say that the alien ship is much less sophisticated than our own ships, but what they lack in sophistication they make up for in brute force. Moreover..."

"What the... The cloaking device is failing!" Tobias exclaimed.

"What?! How?"

"I don't know, there is some kind of power loss! Cloaking device now offline."

"The ship is locking weapons on us." Rachel said calmly.

"Raise shields!" Jake ordered. "Open a jump point. Get us out of here."

"I can't! The jump engines suddenly went offline, too. There is some kind of z-space jamming at work here."

"The ship is firing." Rachel warned.

Two green beams of energy shot out from the hostile ship, and struck the shields of the _Black Light_. "Shields down to 73% Shall I return fire?" Rachel asked.

"No, we don't stand a chance against that thing, primitive or not. Set course for the third planet. We are faster, we can outrun them."

The _Black Light_ fired up all of its four engines and shot away at a speed much greater than the hulking tirangular ship could follow. However, just as they were about to get out of the hostiles weapons range, it deployed a swarm of conefighers.

"They just dropped some kind of fighters. Twenty of them." Tobias said. "They will reach us in ten seconds."

"Open fire when they are within optimal weapons range. Keep trying to open a jump point." Jake ordered. _To many of them. This ship is built for intelligence gathering, not for combat_

"Yes, captain." Rachel replied, now fully at Tactical Officer.

Jake was right. Although heavily armed for its size, it could not take on twenty fighters. The enemy attacked in groups of four, and both parties opened fire almost simultaneously. The _Black Light_ scored the first hit, blowing one of the conefighters to bits. Another took a hit in its right engine and spun out of control. The enemy returned fire, hammering away at the _Black Light's_ shields, and although Rachel blew up fighter after fighter, it proved to be to many of them.

"Shields?" Jake asked.

"Down to 11%" Rachel stated.

"Tobias?"

"Still can't jump."

He had just completed the sentence when another enemy fighter spun out of control and crashed into the _Black Light_, draining the ship of its remaining shield-power.

"Shields are down!" Rachel said.

"Still can't jump?" Jake asked.

"No, but we have to be outside of the range of their jamming soon." Tobias replied as the entire ship shook.

The conefighers continued their relentless attack, despite having lost almost half of their own. Soon, the hull of the _Black Light_ was dotted with scars.

"Multiple direct hits." Tobias reported. "Hullbreach at deck 2, containment fields active."

"Evasive manoeuvres, return fire." Jake ordered.

The _Black Light_ began a series of manoeuvres at full speed in a desperate attempt to avoid being hit, still the ship took the blunt of the fire.

"We have lost shredder control. Several new hulbreaches, fire on deck 2, fire extinguishers active." Just then, another explosion rocked the ship. A consol exploded and both Jake, Ax and Tobias were knocked to the floor.

"Status!" Jake gasped after pulling himself back into the chair.

"Combat sensors are destroyed. Containment fields are failing. Lifesupport are down to 22% We have only half enginepower."

"Can we jump?" Jake never got a reply as another, much more violent, explosion sent him flying across half the bridge.

Jake tried to stand up, but something was wrong with his left leg. Then he saw Cassie lying on the floor without moving. _Cassie! No! This is my fault. I should never have taken her with us._

"Massive damage to deck 1." Tobias reported when he again could see through the smoke. "The energycore is failing."

"Divert emergency power to engines!" Jake coughed.

"I can't, we..."

The entire world erupted into fire, and for a brief moment Jake thought he could se stars. Then it was just total darkness.

  
  
* * * * *

  
  
GWAHAHA! Cliffhanger! But I'm sure you guessed something like this would happen. After all, I did write "...with their greatest heroes presumed dead." in the description of my fic. Now be 'a responsible reader' and review. Reviews are the fuel for us authors.


	3. Back to the future

Time Wars

**Chapter 3: Back to the future**

  


_"'Alea yacta est', but who saw it roll?"_

(alea yacta est = the dice is thrown)

  
**Somewhere beyond time and space.**

The ellimist muttered an ancient curse as he saw the conefighters wear down the _Black Light's_ shields. This was not supposed to happen. The Andalite / Human Alliance had defeated the yeerks as he had foreseen, but this had been completely unexpected. He grimaced as the shields of the small ship collapsed. This had not been a part of his plan. And more importantly; where had the alien ships come from? Carefully he examined the timelines. How had the Crayak...

Aha.

Very clever for him to be. Now how was he going to right all these wrongs?

The ellimist soon realized that he was out of options. He had not prepared for such an eventuality. The Crayak would win now, unless... Slowly an idea took shape in his mind. It was bending the rules pretty far but he didn't have a choice. The alternative was to allow the Crayak to do whatever he wanted with the galaxy. That, he thought, was no alternative.

He reached out and yanked a timeline.

  
**Earth, Two decades earlier.**

Jake's tiger-morph let out a roar that made the ground shake as he jumped on another hork-bajir, locking his jaws around its neck. Behind him a surviving hork-bajir rose, diving for his unprotected back.

Behind you! Cassie yelled. Jake twisted around with incredible speed and slammed his mighty paw in the side of the alien's head. The yeerk got his head _ripped off_.

Rachel on her hand was busy with her own hork-bajir. The thing came at her like a berserker, and managed to give her a nasty cut in the chest before she planted a paw in _his_ chest and sent him flying backwards. At the same time Marco lifted one hork-bajir high up in the air and then slammed him into the floor, squashing two taxxons in the process.

Yeeehaaaw! I've always wanted to do this! He yelled as he used the controller as a bat, knocking out another hork-bajir. Those few taxxons who had survived until now got a very good idea: Get the hell out of here! So they ran, leaving the battle to the hork-bajir.

The Animorphs was busy smashing a yeerk laboratory, witch was in the process of developing a morph-seeker. It was a device that could trace the morph-signature to any morphcapable. The victim didn't even have to morph for the device to work. Needless to say, if the project was ever completed it would mean the end of the only resistance against the invasion of Earth. Thanks to the Chee and their spy-network, however, they had been able to locate and destroy it while it was still under construction.

The yeerks had set up a laboratory in a warehouse witch officially belonged to a company named Sviatren, Inc. Not a very good choice since 'sviatren' meant 'slaughter' in the yeerks language. Getting in had been easy. All entries was very heavily defended, with biofilters everywhere. Except alongside the walls. So Jake's rhino-morph simply made a very big hole and scared the heck out of the yeerk scientists. Rachel, Tobias and Cassie watched their backs while Jake morphed tiger, Marco totally trashed the morph-seeker itself, and Ax hacked into the yeerks computersystem and uploaded a virus that would destroy all research data.

So far, so good.

But, of course, this was not the quietest option, and now hork-bajir and human controllers were storming inn. And to make matters worse the yeerks had blocked them off their improvised 'door'.

Jake, we can't keep this up for long. We have to get out of here! Marco yelled as he knocked out another hork-bajir.

I know, I know! I'll morph rhino and make another hole. Jake yelled back. Just hold them of for a second.

But they can se you! Cassie said.

I'll just hide behind the wreak of the morph-seeker. He said as he dodged behind the fridge-sized device.

As Jake demorphed and remorphed, more and more hork-bajirs was flowing in. Both Rachel and Ax had gotten several bad cuts, Marco's right arm was broken, and Cassie was limping. Only Tobias looked relatively unharmed.

_Perhaps he being a hawk for so long has honed his survival instincts or whatever._ Rachel thought.

Come on, Jake! Marco called. These bastards just received reinforcements! We can't hold them of any longer!

Suddenly, tree hork-bajir came out of nowhere and charged towards Rachel. _Crap._ she thought. She knew she could not take on tree of them at the same time, at least not in the condition she was in. But Rachel being Rachel, she did the exact opposite of turning tail and run. Standing on her hind legs she roared, announcing that she was _not_ going down without a fight!

Then suddenly two of them went flying while the third was trampled down, by an angry rhino with an angry Jake inside. He didn't even slow down, but continued charging forwards until he went straight through the wall with a crash.

Oh, goodie! A new exit! Marco said and ran for the new opening. Rachel, Cassie, Tobias and Ax were not far behind. The big problem was that, grizzly bears and gorillas don't run very fast, at least not when they are wounded. Fortunately, Erek was waiting for them on the exact spot they had left him.

Although the Chee could not fight due to their pacifist programming they could help in other ways, like emitting holograms, making them invisible for pursuers. Of course it was quite unnerving demorphing to human, and then morphing to bird not fifty paces away from the enemy, only protected by a hologram.

But it worked.

The exhausted Animorphs flew away from the remnants of the laboratory with the yeerks still looking for 'andalites' in morph, and with Erek 'helping' them.

That went well. Jake remarked.

Yes, suspiciously well. Marco added. Usualy we barely get away with our lifes.

Why do you always have to be so pessimistic?

Because it is my job! In addition to being paranoid, I'm also the funniest, cutest...

Shut up, Marco. Rachel and Tobias said in unison.

But really. The yeerks usually have at least one nasty surprise in store for us. It would not surprise _me_ if they decided to throw it in our faces right...

Oh _shit!_ Tobias suddenly yelled. Look below us!

...now. Marco finished. But he shut up pretty quickly when he saw what Tobias had already seen. If they had been human, all color would have drained from their faces. Marco was even so flabbergasted that he almost lost control of his morph. They were flying high above the abandoned construction site, but even at this distance they could clearly see what was going on below them. Half a dozen humans were busy digging out what looked like a simple sphere, three meters across.

Is that the _Time Matrix_ they are digging up? Rachel gasped.

Do you know of any other large spheres lying around here? Tobias said.

Get down and go battlemorphs! Jake ordered and dived towards the ground with the rest of the small group not far behind. They landed behind an unfinished wall and immediately began morphing. Unfortunately, they had to demorph into humans before they could become... something more dangerous, and precious minutes was wasted.

"Ax, do you think they know what it is?" Jake asked as he became fully human.

I highly doubt it, prince Jake. If they had known, they would have used it already. They probably scanned the area and got some unusual sensor readings, so they decided to check it out. Such low-priority tasks are usually left to sub-vissers.

Hurry up guys, the already have half of it uncovered. Cassie said, who, of course, was the first to complete morphing.

Allright, let's go! Marco said seconds later as he clenched his enormous firsts.

The human controllers jumped in surprise when Jake roared, and then their eyes grew wide in shock as they saw the assorted gang of animals charging towards them. They immediately understood what they were facing.

"Andalites!" One of them screamed, then dropped his shovel and ran for it. His companions followed his example, knowing all to well that they were no match against andalites in dangerous morphs.

Shall we pursue them? Rachel asked.

No, we have the Time Matrix to take care of. Jake asked.

Prince Jake, we should hurry. Ax said. Now the yeerks know that this artifact is important, and will inform Visser Three about it. And he will know what it is.

How much time do you think we have?

I estimate one to two minutes.

Then don't just stand there! Rachel said. Use the damn thing to get us out of here. Make it transport us to Cassie's barn or something.

Although he was more than hesitant to actually use what was potentially the most powerful weapon in the universe, Jake knew they could not let it fall into the hands of the yeerks. So he urgently placed a paw on the sphere and concentrated hard. Here we go.

The surface of the Time Matrix shimmered. Then it went black.

Something is wrong! Marco yelled. Jake thought he could hear laughter, then they all slipped into total darkness as they lost consciousness.

  
  
**Disk Ship _Sunrider_, En route towards the Yeerk Homeworld, Year 2023.**

Captain William Cartman was having a very bad day. First the Alliance loses one fleetbase, one outpost, two Disk Ships and one Dome Ship in only a week. Then the Yeerk Homeworld is bombarded from orbit by unknown ships. Next, an experimental stealth-ship, supposedly undetectable, vanishes in the same area. And as that wasn't enough, the crew onboard that ship had once gone under the name 'Animorphs'. That small group of five humans and one andalite had been far from the only ones to fight in the war, but it was their actions that had turned the tide. If it had not been for them, Earth would have been yeerk territory by now, and the Andalite Homeworld probably a radioactive wasteland.

After having received the encrypted transmission from home, he had informed the entire crew of what had happened and what they had in wait. He knew the crew now thought the same thing he did; If the Animorphs was dead and the hostiles still there when they arrived, the enemy would not survive an encounter with them.

"What's our ETA?" He asked impatiently.

Still one hour, thirty-seven minutes left. Came the reply. The _Sunrider_ was one of the very few ships with a mixed crew of both humans and andalites. This arrangement dated all the way back to when andalites and humans first allied. It was believed that mixing crew like this, would allow them to better understand each other. So far, no one had complained. Andalites enjoyed tremendous respect from the humans for having fought the yeerks for so long. Humans enjoyed equal respect from the andalites for having risen from being a backwater race, into becoming a galactic superpower in only two decades, and then helping defeat the yeerks.

Cartman's chain of thought was interrupted by the familiar sound of the alarm klaxon.

"Captain, we have a intruder alert on deck 6." His Tactical Officer reported. A human this time.

"Scramble a security team! Seal of the relevant area!" Cartman ordered. _Now what?_ He thought.

"Done. Deck 6 has been hermetically sealed. ETA of security team is fifteen seconds.

  
Exactly fifteen seconds later, twenty heavily armed marines stormed out of the elevator and into deck 6. They quickly made they way past confused crewmembers and down the corridor, stopping by a door with a sign witch read 'Storage bay 4'. After forming up, with ten marines at each side of the door, their sergeant spoke. "Alright. Set your weapons at stun. Remember that this is what we have trained for! Whoever is in there, they don't stand a chance. Open the door."

The marines entered the dimly light room in a professional manner, ready for anything from hork-bajir controllers to acid-bleeding aliens. But they never had any need for pulling the trigger. Inside the room, among crates of all sizes, was five humans and one andalite, lying on the floor without moving.

"You check them for a pulse. We'll cover you."

"Yes, sir." One of the marines said and moved closer to one of the intruders, flipping the figure over on its back he felt for its pulse. Only now he saw it was a female, with blonde hair, a beautiful face, and... Then his brain finally connected the face he was looking on, with the face he had seen so often in the historybooks. "Holy shit!" He exclaimed and jumped up.

"What?" The sergeant asked, instantly alert. Then he also saw it. All color drained from his face. "That's... That's impossible!" Forgetting everything about procedure, he started checking the others lying on the floor. It was them.

It was impossible.

  
"Sec-Team 4 to bridge."

"This is bridge. Have you captured the intruders?" Cartman asked.

"Um, yes, but...I think you'd better come down here and have a look yourself. You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Two minutes later Cartman walked into Storage bay 4. "This better be good, sergeant. We are underway towards a possibly hostile area, and I am supposed to be on the bridge."

The sergeant said nothing, just pointing towards six figures lying on the floor. Frowning Cartman took a closer look. Blinked, and looked again. And a third time. Then he checked the others. It was impossible to mistake them for somebody else. It was them.

"Is this some sort of joke?" He asked, as he looked up. 

"No, sir. This is what we found."

Cartman tapped the communicator on his left arm. "Cartman to sickbay."

"This is sickbay."

"I want a Medical Team to Storage bay 4 at once, five humans, one andalite. As soon as you have finished checking them for injuries, I want you to run a DNA test."

"Yes, sir. Anyone specific you want us to compare their DNA with?"

"Yes. Jacob and Cassandra Berenson, Tobias and Rachel Fangor, Marco Jones and Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill."

"...Say again?"

"You heard me. The Animorphs."

  
  
**Disk Ship _Sunrider_, Sickbay, One hour later.**

Jake slowly regained consciousness, only to find Marco standing over him with a stupid grin.

"About time you woke up."

"Marco?" Jake said, sitting up in the small bed. "Were are we? What happened? Where are the others? Are they okay?"

"Whoa! Slow down. One question at the time. The others are here, as you can see, and yes, they are okay. Problem is, I don't know where 'here' is, or how we got here."

"I think we are in some kind of hospital." Cassie said. "There are doctors and nurses running in and out all the time."

"And I begin to get tired of telling them how I feel." Rachel added.

Tobias flapped down to the floor and began morphing human. "According to Ax, we have been unconscious for over an hour."

Wherever we are, it is clear that the Time Matrix transported us here before disappearing to some unknown location. The question of 'where' remains unsolved, though. Ax said.

"Have you tried to talk to the doctors?" Jake asked as he stood up, a little bewildered over being in human form without remembering having demorphed.

"Yes, but they wouldn't say anything, they just continued to look funny at us." Marco said.

Whoever these humans are, it is clear that they know what I am. None of them reacted strangely when seeing an andalite.

"So you are saying they are controllers?"

I seriously doubt it, prince Jake.

"How come?"

One of them smiled to me. It was a friendly smile, and yeerks isn't exactly known to be friendly towards my people.

Rachel started to say something, but she never got any further than opening her mouth. Just then the door slid up, and a man walked in. He wore a very familiar black uniform, with a small crest on his left breast. It was an Earth surrounded by twenty-four stars.

The Animorphs stared at the man. They had seen that uniform before, when the ellimist transported them to the future.

"Oh, my God." Jake breathed. "What year is it?"

"2023." The man answered, slightly puzzled.

Marco sat himself on the bed. "Two decades. That infernal machine transported us more than two decades into the future."

"Machine? What machine?" The man asked.

"Do you mind telling us who you are and what this place is, before you begin asking questions?" Rachel said.

"Sorry. I am Captain William Cartman and you are onboard my ship, the _Sunrider,_ witch is currently on its way towards the Yeerk Homeworld.

"The _what_ homeworld?!" Marco asked alarmed.

"Don't worry, the yeerks were defeated three years ago." Cartman smiled. "The Yeerk War is over."

The Animorphs breathed a sigh of relief. The ellimist had told them that the yeerks had been driven away from Earth, not that they had been completely defeated!

This is a human ship? Ax asked.

"Yes, built and operated by us. But it has a few andalites onboard as part of an exchange program. Now could you please tell me how you got onboard my ship?" Cartman asked and turned towards the one witch he knew had to be Jake. After all, he didn't know about many other kids that gave the impression of being made out of living steel.

Jake sighed. "Alright. My name is Jake, and this is -"

"No, no." Cartman interrupted. "I know exactly who you are, but I don't understand how it's possible."

"I'm not so sure myself." Jake said. "We were on our way home from one of our missions against the yeerks, when we, incredible as it sounds, stumbled over a bunch of human controllers in the process of digging up the Time Matrix.

"The Time Matrix?" Cartman gasped.

"I take you've heard of it?"

"Yes, but I thought it was only a myth!"

"It's not a myth, believe me."

"Alright. You found the Time Matrix, then what?"

"Well, we didn't know how the heck it had gotten there, but our first and foremost priority was to hide it, so the yeerks couldn't get their hands on it. We were running out of time, so we attempted to make it transport itself and us to a more secure location. But something went wrong and we lost consciousness. The next thing I see is Marco's face."

"Yuk!" Rachel added.

"Haha." Marco said.

"Well, this is one heck of a coincidence." Cartman said.

"What do you mean?"

Now it was Cartman's turn to sigh. "It began a week ago, when we lost contact with _Zarya_ Fleet Base. Then we lose in quick order one outpost, two Disk Ships and one Dome Ship. Next, our groundforces on the conquered Yeerk Homeworld send a distress signal saying they are being bombed from orbit by unknown warships. High Command sent the _Black Light,_ a ship equipped with the latest in stealth technology, to figure out what was going on. As soon as they arrived, all contact was lost.

"It sounds to me as if you have a new war on your hands." Rachel said.

"It would seem like that, yes. But it gets worse. The crew onboard the stealth-ship was... well, you. Your future selves."

This revelation had the effect of effectively silencing the Animorphs. They just stared at the captain for several seconds, before Marco spoke up.

"Um, so we are kind of... missing in action? We are not confirmed dead?"

"That's right." Cartman answered. "There is a small fleet waiting for our signal to enter the starsystem. We were sent as an advance scout, and to look for survivors. So, there is still hope."

"I don't understand." Cassie said. "Surly our future selves would have remembered us going to the future, so why did they voluntarily walk into what could be their deaths?"

Cartman started to say something, then stopped with his mouth halfway open. He just stood there like he had suddenly frozen into ice.

"Captain? Is something wrong?" Jake asked.

CASSIE ASKED A QUESTION AND I BELIEVE I CAN ANSWER.

"Ah! Mr. Non-Interference!" Marco said. "How nice of you to join us!"

WAS THAT SARCASM, MARCO?

"What in the world makes you think that?"

Ignoring Marco entirely, the ellimist continued. THE ANSWER TO CASSIE'S QUESTION IS THAT WHEN I TRANSPORT YOU BACK TO THE PAST, I WILL DELETE YOUR MEMORIES OF THESE EVENTS. IF I DIDN'T, IT MIGHT ALTER THE COURSE OF HISTORY.

"In what way?" Tobias asked.

DIFFICULT TO TELL. PERHAPS YOU WILL BE OVERCONFIDENT AND LOOSE THE WAR. OR PERHAPS JAKE AND CASSIE WILL JUST NEVER GET MARRIED.

"So now you'll just take us back to our own time and wipe out our memory, leaving us to die in a couple of decades?" Marco said upset.

NOT YET. YOU SEE, I COULDN'T TRANSPORT YOU TO THE FUTURE, THAT'S AGAINST THE GAME RULES. I EVEN BENT THEM PRETTY FAR DOING IT THE LAST TIME. The Animorphs got the impression that the ellimist was wearing the biggest smile in the galaxy. BUT YOU CAME HERE ON YOUR OWN ACCORD, AND NOW THAT YOU ARE HERE I CAN JUST AS WELL EXPLOIT IT.

"Oh, I get it." Marco said. "If we _happen_ to find the Time Matrix, and use it to travel to the future, it is not _your_ fault, is it?

PRECISELY!

"But what are we suppose to do? And why didn't you let us arrive here a week earlier, so we might have prevented our own potential deaths?"

JUST REMEMBER THAT MORPHING CAN BE A VERY POWERFUL WEAPON WHEN USED CORRECTLY.

"What do you mean?" Marco asked at the same time Cartman said "I don't know."

"I hate it when he does that." Tobias said.

"Excuse me?" Cartman frowned.

Jake sighed. "We just found out why, captain. Do you know what an ellimist is? Well..." After a somewhat complicated explanation, in witch the good captain asked a lot of questions, he looked carefully at all six of them. Then he finally nodded.

"If that had come anybody else, I would have declared them insane and locked them up."

"Lucky us." Marco said.

The captain's communicator beeped. "Cartman here." He said.

"Captain, we'll exit z-space in fifteen minutes."

"I'm on my way." Turning the communicator off, he continued. "Since it is your lives at stake you might want to accompany me to the bridge."

The Animorphs quickly followed Cartman through several corridors before stepping into an elevator. On their way the small group received a lot of attention by crewmembers, who either thought that they were hallucinating or that this was some sort of sick joke. But no one dared speak up, seeing their captain was leading them.

Arriving at the _Sunrider's_ large bridge, Cartman stat himself in the captain's chair and began immediately issuing orders. "Cloak us and go to Defcon 2 as soon as we exit z-space. Passive scanning only. No use in broadcasting our presence." The bridge crew urgently complied although they often cast uncertain glances at the small group of kids gathered near the elevator door.

In was fifteen nerve-racking minutes for the Animorphs. All of them tried to conceal their fear from the others, and traded looks witch said 'don't worry, we've come this far, we'll probably come out of this alive, too'.

Z-space exit in ten seconds. The Helm reported.

"Stand by." Carman said. Behind him the Animorphs tensed. Now they would soon know if their future selves were alive or dead.

Exiting now. On the viewscreen they could see z-space abruptly transforming into normal space. A distant sun could be seen in the center of the screen, and a large gas-type planet to the left.

Scanning no ships at all, captain. But I have a lot of wreckage here.

"Go to active scanning. What kind of wreckage?" Cartman asked.

I'm scanning the remnants of one Dome Ship and its fighters, among remnants from unknown ships. In addition I have..." Pause. "I think I have... wreckage matching the specifications of the _Black Light._

Cartman could hear the small group behind him drawing their breaths. "How much?"

70 metric tons. The _Black Light_ was 82 tons. I'm also scanning a small amount of organic material.

"Could we gather some of it and run a DNA match?"

I don't think so, sir. It is spread over a very large area. And judging from the wreckage, I doubt there is a single cell left alive.

Cartman glanced at the Animorphs. Jake face could have been carved out of stone, Rachel had a grim look, Ax had no expression at all, while the rest were more or less pale. He didn't blame them. They had just been told that they would die in two decades, and nothing they did could prevent it.

He sighed heavily. "Alright. Send an encrypted message to _Eternity_ about our findings. And take us closer to the Yeerk Homeworld, see if you can contact our groundforces."

The crew urgently complied, all the time casting uncertain glances towards the small group of devastated Animorphs. No one uttered a word. Even the TO was silent.

As soon as the Yeerk Homeworld came into view, the Helm spoke up. Contact established.

"On screen." Cartman ordered.

An andalite soon appeared on the large screen. He had a brutal scar on the left side of his face, beginning a little above his main eye and down to where his jaw would have been if he had had a mouth. His synthesized voice boomed out of the speakers. "Ah, finally! I was beginning to wonder if the entire Combined Fleet had been destroyed." 

Cartman smiled. "I can assure you that's not the case, war-prince. It looks pretty bad, however. We have lost several ships already, in addition to an outpost and a fleetbase."

"The Dome Ship in orbit... no one survived?"

"I am afraid not. Whoever the attackers were, they were careful to destroy all remnants of it. Didn't anyone make it down to the surface in the life capsules?"

"No. The enemy fighters seemingly had a lot of fun blowing them up." He said bitterly.

"What about your own casualties?"

"Surprisingly small. Of twenty thousand troops, only fifty-two were killed, a little above a hundred are wounded. They just leveled the morphing centers with the earth, then withdrew."

Cartman nodded thoughtfully. Why had the hostiles done this? There was no strategy behind it.

"Alright. We will stay here for a while and scan the rest of the system, before we signal the waiting fleet to move in."

  
  
**Secret staging area, Alien command ship, Bridge.**

"Guardmaster, the fleet is ready."

"Good. Proceed to..."

"May I remind you," One figure interrupted, "that it is I who is in charge of this operation?"

"And may _I_ remind _you_, that it is I who is in charge of this operation's... special areas, and that I only answer to the highest authorities, not to you." It was not a question.

"Then concentrate on your 'special areas', and let me take care of the invasion."

The Guardmaster thought of arguing further, but he knew that their attacks had to be swift so the Alliance didn't get the time to mass their forces. Witch meant they didn't have a second to waste. Besides, as much as he hated to admit it, the quarrelsome little commander was right.

"Of course, we all answer to the same authority." He said and smiled a smile witch held no warmth.

Momentarily satisfied the commander turned to his underlings. "Take the fleet into z-space. Set course for the Yeerk Homeworld." Phase 2 of the plan was underway.

  
  
**The _Sunrider,_ High Orbit, Yeerk Homeworld.**

It was a devastated small group of Animorphs captain Cartman found in the cabin he had assigned them. Jake and Cassie were sitting on the small bed, holding hands. So did Rachel and Tobias, although Rachel appeared to have accepted her fate. Marco sat in a corner staring a something only he could see. Ax tried to look like a warrior, but he didn't hold his tail as high as before.

"How are you guys doing?" He asked.

"I've been better." Tobias said.

"I always fared something like this would happen." Jake said. "But I never thought it would happen after the war was over."

"Yeah. First we survive the yeerks, then we are killed." Marco added.

Cartman nodded bitterly. He had studied the Animorphs when he was younger, he knew exactly what they had accomplished. They deserved better than this.

"High Command just went public about the _Black Light_ back home. But they decided to keep a lock on your presence here for the time being. I did, however, receive permission to inform my crew about you, and how you came here. I left out the entire ellimist-affair, though. I don't think anyone enjoys the thought of being used as chesspieces by superbeings.

"So, now everyone on this ship knows who we are?" Jake asked with mixed feelings. From what he had gathered from their previous trip to the future, they were world-famous warheroes in this age.

"Yes. It was for the best, I assure you. A lot of wild rumors were floating around here."

"Such as?" Marco asked.

"Quote: The Animorphs has returned from the dead, and a thousand ellimists are waiting their signal for attack in z-space."

That brought a few smiles. Suddenly the alarm klaxon brought an abrupt end to the smiles. Almost simultaneously the captain's communicator beeped.

"This is Cartman. What the hell is going on?"

"Captain, you are needed on the bridge immediately! There is a shitload of alien ships coming out of z-space!" Cartman was already on his way out of the door before his TO had finished, with the Animorphs right behind. They quickly made their way past crewmembers, who were rushing to their stations as fast as their legs could carry them, and into the bridge.

"Status!" Cartman yelled as soon as the elevator doors slid up.

"We have approximately 800 one-man fighters and 40 triangular vessels the size of our own ship, in addition we have 80 smaller ships that appear to be troop transports."

"How many onboard?"

"Approximately 500, sir."

_Forty thousand troops!_ Cartman thought. "Tactical evaluation?"

"The triangular vessels are in the process of taking defensive positions around the planet among most of their fighters, the remaining fighters and the troop transports will enter the atmosphere in six minutes."

"Have they noticed us?"

"No, they have not begun high-intensive scanning of the system yet."

"Hail our groundforces."

The andalite war-prince appeared on the viewscreen les than five seconds later. "War-prince, as you may have noticed, we have a slight problem up here."

"You humans truly know how to understate a problem, captain!"

Cartman managed a strained smile. "We estimate that at least forty thousand troops are coming your way. I strongly suggest that you evacuate."

"We have already begun."

"Good. We'll try to buy you some time." With that he cut the transmission. "Take us directly into the path of those troop transports." The _Sunrider_ began accelerating towards the enemy almost before Cartman had finished the sentence.

"Ax." Jake said quietly. "What chance do you think we have against one of those triangular ships?"

I don't know, prince Jake. I have never seen ships like that before. However, I talked to a few of the andalite warriors serving aboard here, and it looks like this 'Disk Ship' is at least the equivalent of our own Dome Ships. Its weapons is some kind of modified shredders witch can pump out at least a tenth of the energy of a main shredder-cannon on a Dome Ship per shot, with roughly one second to recharge.

"So this ship only packs a tenth as much firepower as a Dome Ship?" Rachel asked.

No Rachel, I am afraid you do not understand. Each cannon can fire one shot every second, but this ship has _thirty_ of these cannons, all capable of targeting and firing independently of one another. Moreover, these are the _light_ weapons, mostly used against enemy fighters. In addition it has eight _heavy_ cannons. All of these weapons have their own independent targetingsystems and emergency powersources with multiple backups, in case main power should fail.

"So this ship is a flying fortress and designed to fight on until it's nearly completely destroyed? I like it." Rachel grinned.

"Of course you do." Marco muttered.

We are in position, my prince. The Helm reported.

"Decloak and take us to Defcon 1. Launch fighters."

From the fighter bays located at the sides of the vessel, 36 E-shaped starhawks swarmed out. Their cockpit was located in the center, with the engines directly behind. They had two "wings" curling slightly downwards, each tip ending in a powerful shredder.

"Enemy fighters are attacking." Tactical Officer warned.

"Order our own fighters to take defensive positions around us. Target the transports. Aim at their engines."

The _Sunrider_ fired at three transports at the time. Their shields collapsed under the heavy bombardment, then their engines were reduced to scrap as the shredders tore into their armor. The transports began to drift helplessly through space, and the _Sunrider_ moved on to its next victims. Behind them a steady stream of their own transports and shuttles rose from the surface and disappeared into z-space.

"We have disabled 19 troop transports. "The TO reported. "The fighters are holding their own, but just barely. In addition, a dozen of those triangular ships are coming our way."

"How many have we gotten of the planet?"

"Over 11 thousand."

"Continue the assault."

The _Sunrider_ disabled an additional six transports before the TO spoke up again.

"Sir, the triangular vessels have begun bombarding the planet!"

Cartman cursed. "Alright, get us out of here."

Captain, the jump engines just went offline!

"What? How?"

I don't know. There is some kind of jamming preventing us to open a jump point.

"Can you determine where it's coming from?"

I'm scanning now... It's coming from the lead triangular ship.

"Set a course directly towards it. Target it with everything we have."

The triangular ship was caught with surprise as the _Sunrider_ heaved around like a rabid dog, firing with every weapon it had. The hostile responded with launching its fighters, but was soon reminded in a harsh way that they were not up to Alliance standards. The E-shaped human fighters used less than a minute to cut the number of conefigthers in half.

But in the meantime the _Sunrider_ itself had not been inactive. It hammered away at its aggressor, drastically reducing its shields. And after one squadron of E-fighters abandoned the dogfight and joined in the attack, it was only a matter of time before the enemy's shields would collapse.

But just as the _Sunrider_ was about to deal the killing blow, an orange sphere, barely a meter across, shot out from the front of the triangular ship. It raced across the void between the two opponents with a incredible speed and hit the _Sunrider_ square on, resulting in a large explosion witch severely reduced the ship's shields.

"Shields are down to 32%" the TO reported as the ship shook under their feet.

"Continue firing!" Cartman barked. "What the hell did they hit us with?"

"I don't know. Some kind of missile - I've never seen anything like it."

The ship shook again as the enemy scored another hit.

"Shields are down o 6% Minor damages on hull. The enemy's shields are down!"

"Target the energycore before he launches another of those missiles again!"

Golden energybeams from the human-built shredders cut into the hull of the triangular ship. Seconds later the core destabilized and the enemy disappeared in a ball of fire, vaporized metal and wreckage. But not before it had squeezed of one last salvo of green energybeams. They drained the _Sunrider's_ remaining shield-energy, and then impacted on the hull.

The jamming is gone! The Helm reported.

"Jump!" Cartman ordered.

As the _Sunrider_ entered z-space, green energybeams from three other triangular vessels shot through the part of space it had been in only seconds earlier.

  
  
**Alien commandship, Bridge.**

The commander of the fleet watched as the _Sunrider_ disappeared into z-space. "It is of no concern." He said. "The humans will be dealt with when the time comes. I thrust the Guardmaster is massing his own ships now?"

"Yes, he said he would personally command the fleet."

Good. That meant that the Guardmaster would be out of his way for some time, and he would be free to do his job. He had no idea where the Guardmaster was heading, nor did he have any desire to know. To much curiosity could get you killed.

"Well, proceed to set up the Carvius Base. Make sure everything runs smoothly, I'll hold you personally responsible."

  
  
**The _Sunrider._**

The Animorphs breathed a sigh of relief among with the crew as the emptiness witch was z-space filled the viewscreen.

"Okay, we're safe for now. Damage report?"

"Minor damages on hull, and we lost six fighters. The rest are retreating back to hangar bays. In addition, the bastards scored a lucky hit; our z-space engines are damaged, we can only move at half speed. But all in all I'd say we were lucky to survive at all."

"Agreed. How many of our forces got of the planet?"

"About eighteen thousand, sir."

Cartman grimaced. _Two thousand already dead! This war doesn't begin to good._ '''Alright. Begin repairs and get our shields up and running again. Send an encrypted message to _Eternity_ about the situation, and for God's sake, tell the fleet _not_ to move in!"

  
  
**Fleet Base _Eternity,_ Admiral Gates' personal office.**

"Yes, what is it." Gates said after pressing a button on the communicator. It was a special type witch used high-order encryption for top priority transmissions.

"Sir, we just received rapports from the Disk Ship _Sunrider._ I think you might want to see them."

Words appeared on the screen and Admiral Gates sat down to see what Cartman had to say. As expected, it was about the invasion. Good. The _Sunrider_ had not discovered anything important. The invasion was even a little ahead of schedule. It wasn't until he accessed the other rapport that he understood that something was very wrong. After the first three lines he paled visibly. And by the time he had finished his face had taken an unhealthy ashen-gray. For the first time in his career the yeerk didn't know what to do. The Time Matrix? The Animorphs are alive? Impossible!

He had to rapport to his superiors. He had to rapport to his superiors at _once!_ But first he had to get Gates under control again.

  
  
**The _Sunrider, _The Animorphs' cabin.**

"I don't get it." Cassie said. "What does the ellimist think we can do here? And why didn't he let us arrive just one week earlier? That way, we could have prevented our own deaths."

"Perhaps he lost a bet." Marco muttered.

"Wouldn't surprise me." Rachel said.

"I just can't believe this!" Tobias said. "We have just been told we'll die in some twenty years, and now he expect us to fight in _another_ war?"

Sometimes you don't have a choice. Ax said. The only think we can do now is to die like warriors.

"Ax is right." Rachel said fiercely. "I won't go down without a fight!"

Tobias smiled. "I knew you'd say that."

"Remember we are not dead yet. We still have many years ahead of us, and I intend to exploit them to the fullest." Jake said with a sidewards glance towards Cassie. "I just wish I knew how we are suppose to help in this war."

Jake had barely completed the sentence when the now so familiar sound of the alarm klaxons sounded. The Animorphs looked at each other for about two seconds. "To the bridge!" They said in unison. Less than a minute later the small group entered the commandbridge.

Cartman and the TO eyed each other. "Leave them." The captain said quietly. "What's the status of the alien ship following us?"

"They have the same course as us, towards the yeerk-colonized planet Nivasjup, and are approximately half an light-hour behind us, and gaining fast. They appear to be of the triangular type. They... z-space jamming is occurring!" The deck shook under their feet as the _Sunrider_ was violently ripped out of zero space, among with their aggressors.

"Defcon 1, now!" Cartman ordered.

"Shields are up, shredders armed. Guess you don't want me to launch fighters?"

"No, they'll be slaughtered."

The enemy is advancing towards us. The Helm warned.

"On screen."

The large viewscreen changed into showing fifteen enemy ships coming towards them in a tight formation.

"Target the lead ship."

Captain, they are hailing us.

"On screen." Cartman said surprised.

The viewscreen suddenly showed a being sitting in a chair on the bridge of one of the hostile ships. It looked like a very big hork-bajir, except it was completely black. Its blades were also bigger, in addition to having some nasty spikes. "Greetings, captain." The creature grinned evilly. "I am Guardmaster One of the Black Guard; the Emperor's personal elite forces. I am ordering you to power down your weapons and your shields, and surrender your vessel immediately."

"Wait a minute." Cartman said. "Who are you, and why are you attacking us?"

"Why, in war you attempt to kill your enemies, do you not?"

"But we are not in war with each other. We have never met before."

The creature threw its head back and laughed out laud. "We _have_ met before, and we _are_ in war. You see, the war between humans, andalites and yeerks are not over yet!" he sneered.

"You are a yeerk?" Cartman gasped.

"Yes!" He thumped his chest with a first. "How do you like our new, genetically engineered hosts?"

Cartman was flabbergasted, and the Animorphs equally so. How had the yeerks built up such a fleet of warships? It was impossible, they just did not have the resources. In addition, such a project could not possibly have escaped the notice of the peacekeepingforces.

"But if you are yeerks, why did you attack the morphingcenters and kill your own people?"

The Guardmaster leant forwards. "Those yeerks, if they still could be called yeerks, were traitors! Traitors are executed."

"You were heading towards Nivasjup before you yanked us out of z-space. You are not going to..."

"Kill them to? Of course I am."

Cartman couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You are going to slaughter twenty million of your own people?"

"They are not my people anymore! They trapped themselves in human morphs! They are worse than traitors! I repeat my earlier command, captain. Surrender your vessel or be destroyed. Your have thirty seconds to comply." Then he cut the transmission.

Cartman shook his head. "I can't believe..." He turned towards his TO. "Do you think the small fleet gathered there can withstand fifteen of those enemy ships?"

"Not a chance in hell."

Cartman sighed. "And we promised the yeerk nothlits to protect them from external threats. That leaves us with only one choice." He glanced at the Animorphs. Only Jake and Cassie seemed to understand what he was about to do, the rest just looked at him confused. No matter, they'd understand soon.

The yeerks are hailing us again. The Helm warned, this time with hate in his thoughtspeak voice.

"On screen."

"The thirty seconds are up, captain. What is your decision?" The yeerk asked as he appeared on the viewscreen.

Cartman took a deep breath. "Guardmaster One, I am ordering you to power down your shields and weapons, and surrender your vessels. If you refuse, I will take whatever actions are necessary to stop you."

The look on the yeerk's face was priceless. He gaped at the captain for several seconds before he regained the ability to speak. "Is this a joke? I am commanding a fleet of fifteen warcruisers, and _you_ are asking _me_ to surrender? Don't be ridicules! What are you going to do if I refuse? Attack? There are easier ways to commit suicide!"

"Perhaps. But we fought and died for what we believed in during the war, and we will do so again if need be. You have ten seconds."

"Captain, you can not possibly -"

"Eight seconds."

"I will not -"

"Six seconds."

"You will be destroyed, captain!"

"Four seconds."

The remaining seconds passed. Cartman knew the yeerks wouldn't back down. But he couldn't let them slaughter the millions on Nivasjup. Besides, he didn't fancy the idea of becoming a controller. _First we fight yeerks. Then we have to fight to protect yeerks._ Cartman thought. _The universe must have a sick sense of humor._

"Divert emergency power to shredders. Target the lead warcruiser with all weapons." Cartman ordered quietly. His Tactical Officer grimly followed orders. Cartman glanced at the Animorphs. All of them glowed with grim determination. Ax had taken an warrior's stance, and Rachel was even grinning! _They really _are_ the Animorphs!_ He thought as the last shadow of a doubt lifted from his mind.

The Guardmaster for his part still couldn't believe his own ears. "Captain, stop this nonsense! I am giving you a chance -"

"Fire."

  
  
* * * * *

  
  
To be continued... (muhahaha!)  
Sorry about the rather tin plot at the beginning of this chapter. It isn't easy to be a writer sometimes. I know it took quite a while to get this chapter up, but keep in mind that english is not my native language, so it takes a while to produce a new chapter in passable english. Hm. Guess most people has forgotten that this story even exist...


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